Serial rapist mocked victims

Brute laughed after attacks

A serial rapist who controlled and sexually abused six women has finally been brought to justice.

Ian Thomson, 34, a farm worker and fisherman from Dumfries, was convicted of raping six ex-girlfriends over a nine-year period after a four-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Three of his traumatised victims told the court that Thomson laughed after brutally raping them.

Thomson was cleared at the High Court in Glasgow of raping one of his victims in front of her children. The verdict in that case was not proven.

But in the latest case to be brought against Thomson he was found guilty of raping six women.

The alleged rape of a seventh woman in Scotstoun, Glasgow, in 2013 was found not proven. However, he was convicted of sending her threatening text messages.

As Thomson was led away to the cells, he shook his head at victims who were sitting in the public gallery of the court.

Judge John Beckett QC deferred sentence on Thomson until next month for a risk assessment to be carried out. He also ordered background reports.

He told Thomson: “You have been found guilty of many serious offences including the rape of a number of women.”

Judge Beckett said the evidence in the case was “harrowing” and excused the jurors from ever having to serve on a jury again.

Thomson, who committed the offences in Dumfriesshire between 2000 and 2009, was also violent and controlling towards the women.

One of his victims, who is in her thirties, described 34-year-old Ian Thomson as “nicey nicey one minute and the next the most evil and twisted person I have ever known.”

She added: “He was controlling, very controlling. It had to be his way or no way.”

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told advocate depute Jane Farquharson, prosecuting: “I told him when a woman says no it means no, but Thomson said: ‘I’ll decide’.”

She was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder which was directly linked to her relationship with Thomson.

Thomson’s first rape victim was just 15 when she was raped by him. She told the court that she was also physically abused by Thomson and discouraged from contacting friends and relatives.

The woman said: “I stopped speaking to people and I stopped going out. If I wanted to do anything I had to ask his permission.”

Referring to Thomson raping her she added: “I told him to stop but he ignored me. I told him I didn’t want to. He just laughed in my face.”

Another victim who was just 17 when Thomson raped her said he always wanted to know where she was and what she was doing. She told the court: “After he raped me he just laughed and acted like nothing had happened.”

One woman told how Thomson raped her in a caravan when she was aged 14 or 15. She said: “I told him I didn’t want to lose my virginity in a caravan and he just laughed.”

Another of Thomson’s victims, now in her 30s, said in evidence: “If I didn’t want to have sex I basically said no. But he just carried on and told me: ‘You don’t really mean no. I like a challenge.’”

She added: “He made me feel like a piece of meat. He never listened to anything I said. When I said no he should have just left me alone.”

The woman said that on one occasion Thomson threatened to kill her and told her there were people in Ireland he knew.

His sixth victim, who was 15 when she woke up to find Thomson raping her, said: “For a long time I used to blame myself.”

Thomson denied all the rape allegations claimed the women were conspiring against him and “telling a pack of lies”.

Prosecutor Ms Farquharson said of Thomson: “His possessiveness, his control, his manipulation of each and the physical and sexual abuse these women were forced to endure satisfied his sexual overdrive.”

Thomson was finally brought to justice by the efforts of Police Scotland’s Domestic Abuse Task Force.

They began investigating Thomson and spoke to his known former partners.

Thomson has previous convictions including one for a domestic breach of the peace.

Solicitor advocate Murray Macara, defending, will give his plea in mitigation next month.

DCI Samantha McCluskey of the Domestic Abuse Task said: “This investigation was no doubt distressing for the women involved having to relive the abuse they endured at his hands.

“It is a testament to them that they overcame their fear and spoke out. It is to these women that I would like to pay tribute and thank them for having the courage to speak to officers.”